Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” arrives not as a replacement for Emily Brontë’s novel, but as an admission that no adaptation can truly contain it. The quotation marks in the title are a quiet confession: this is not the definitive version, only one woman’s haunted memory of a book that changed her. Fennell leans into subjectivity, treating the story less as sacred text and more as an emotional echo, shaped by time, imagination, and the way first encounters with literature imprint on us.
Margot Robbie’s presence, both on screen and as producer, steers the film toward grand, unapologetic romance. She hints at intensity without the need for constant provocation, promising a love story that feels epic yet intimate, filtered through a distinctly female gaze. Rather than challenging audiences to abandon their cherished Brontë, the film asks them to bring those attachments into the cinema—and see what happens when another reader dares to remember it differently.